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8
call exact numbers,) this champion of truth winds up bysaying
"the rest of the Committees are publicans and
money-lenders." All I have to say to this is that it is a
vile calumny on the members of the Vestry. Why
should I (I am speaking for myself), occupying a
business position in this parish, and endeavouring to do
my duty in all public matters,—why should I be held up
to public ridicule by the man who has ventured to make
these statements? Because, if "the rest of them are
publicans and money-lenders," I must come within the
category. I cannot tell you all the qualifications of the
members of the various Committees, but I do know the
numbers as stated in the House of Commons to be false.
And it does seem to me singular that from a House
so largely constituted of brewers and distillers such
an outcry against publicans should come. It is no
secret that I am no friend of publicans—nothing
to do with their trade in any way; but looking
at the combination in the House of Commons of those
concerned in the liquor trade, it does seem strange that
such a speech should have been made. And when it has
not been thought wrong for a brewer to occupy the
position of a Cabinet Minister, it is strange that it
should be thought so wrong in the Clerkenwell Vestry.
If such, too, had been my convictions, and I had the
drafting of a Bill which was to be for the better government
of the people, I should most certainly have endeavoured
to take care that the views I held should
be carried out.
In the House of Commons last Friday evening Sir
Charles Dilke made another speech:—
"His honourable friend (Mr. Torrens) knew the constitution
"of the Clerkenwell Vestry, and the effect of his speech and vote
"might be to leave that Vestry as it was. His honourable friend
"knew that Chairman after Chairman of the Sanitary Committee
"had again and again reported in favour of Sanitary Reform, and
"that their Reports had been vetoed year after year by a majority
"of the Vestry who were interested in the class of property which
"the Sanitary Committee would interfere with. All who had held
"the Chairmanship of the Sanitary Committee for years past had
"testified to the harm done by the action of the majority of the
"Vestry. The Sanitary Committee had now been repressed, and